When your daughter is a dietitian…(+ Weekly Menu)

Did you first notice the 40 grams of fat? 17 grams of saturated fat? 1220 milligrams of sodium? 580 calories?

When I was in Chicago last weekend, my mother drew my attention to my dad’s “latest steal from the dollar store”. Without missing a beat, I snatched the cans from the shelf and insisted they be tossed. But I compromised and the cans were donated to the food pantry.

When questioned about his “selection” my dad simply said that the corned beef hash looked good and was a great deal. I rolled my eyes in disapproval and in return I got sad puppy dog look. My mom is pretty well trained to consult labels but my dad…not so much. He’s works in progress, obviously.

I thought this would be a funny topic to blog about, and of course, an accompanying picture helps do the label justice (if that’s even the right word). It’s rare you see a label quite so…gross, so I thought it would be fun to share with nutrition gurus 🙂

Comments

Hilarious. My parents are the same. My mom is the label reader, but my dad? Not so much. He tries, sometimes, but most of the time he just says “f” it. And then I feel like when we go out for dinner her purposely orders the WORST thing on the menu, just to rub it in…like fried bologna sandwich from Brazenhead! He’s done that twice now. Ugh.

The menu sounds great. I just saw pomegranates at work, but am not ready to spend $3 on ONE, I’ll have to keep my eyes peeled for cheaper.

This reminds me of my husband. A few weeks ago, he came home with a sandwich from the gas station (I know, I know) and he was like, I got a turkey sandwich, it’s healthy and I turned it over and saw that it had 750 calories and 40 grams of fat. He didn’t even think to look at the nutritional info, he just thought it was turkey and it was fine. I mean, I guess he’s thinking a little bit about nutrition but not enough to look at the label. Plus, there’s the whole business of buying a sandwich at the GAS STATION!!

Ouch! I hate when that happens! I think the same thing is common with salads…so I usually opt out of those at restaurants and try to go with a lean protein or sandwich that I can control what goes on. 750 calories though…wowza!!

I’m somewhat relieved that there are others out there that are slow learners on the subject of nutrition. In the case of Pa Prevention it is a combination of lack of knowledge and his new store called “Deals.” That corned beef hash was only ONE of his GREAT DEALS. I’d be curious if there is anything canned that could be worse than corned beef hash.

oh nicole, have i got a good one for you. since moving to nc, i have learned about many different foods i never heard of before. fat back. strickaline. chitlins. but the worst offense, i think, came the other day when during a diet recall with a patient, i was informed that his breakfast consists of CANNED BRAINS. kid you not. anyway, i did not know the nutrition facts for this sort of thing so i had to look it up. in one serving of canned brains, you get over 3000mg of cholesterol! that’s not an extra zero — really, it was THREE THOUSAND. that’s over 1000% of recommended daily cholesterol allowance!!!!!!!!!! i was in shock!

Oh my…I’m now a little nauseated. I learned what “sweet bread” was when I lived in Oklahoma. I’m not even sure how to define it, but here’s what wiki says: Sweetbreads or ris are culinary names for the thymus (throat, gullet, or neck sweetbread) or the pancreas (heart, stomach, or belly sweetbread) especially of the calf (ris de veau) and lamb (ris d’agneau) (although beef and pork sweetbreads are also eaten).[1] Various other glands used as food are also called ‘sweetbreads’, including the parotid gland (“cheek” or “ear” sweetbread), the sublingual glands (“tongue” sweetbreads or “throat bread”), the salivary gland, and testicles (cf. Rocky Mountain oyster).[2][3] The “heart” sweetbreads are more spherical in shape, and surrounded symmetrically by the “throat” sweetbreads, which are more cylindrical in shape.